Gushes & rants about the things in our heads

Claiming the Enemy by Lauren Hawkeye

Piper Dawson has spent a lifetime living by other people’s rules. She’s worked hard to get what she wants—a residency at her first choice hospital—and no one will ever tie her down again, not even her severe yet incredibly sexy supervisor, Dr. Alexander “Ace” Lennox.
Ace is done with love. He’s had his heart shattered, and he never wants to go there again. But when he’s inexplicably enticed by the sexy, tattooed woman with blue streaks in her hair and a perpetual smile on her lip, he figures that maybe he can keep it to just sex.
The problem? He thrives on control, and Piper dances just around the edges of it. But when they're together, control is the first thing to go...

A very easy read, albeit a very short one that places the focus on the physical relationship than the emotional one. I did think the setting unusual – a hot medical romance that develops out of a kiss and playacting during break time at a nearby pub – and a refreshing change from the other books in this imprint so far.

A non-fan of medical dramas or romance can easily appreciate this though, seeing as Lauren Hawkeye has made the story accessible (especially if what happens in the hospital is secondary) without technical jargons peppering every dialogue.

But the story’s brevity has also compromised several aspects that I would have loved to read about: the lack of character depth and development since all the pages seemed to go on about sex rather than Ace and Piper working out their personal issues together (which never quite happened), as well as the angst that should have come with it (but didn’t) given the subject matter. There were times I thought both behaved like idiots – not wanting anything more than sex then getting upset when it went in the opposite direction instead – when all they had to do was communicate rather than keep it all in. As a result, I wasn’t too convinced when they got their act together because of a vengeful colleague and a huge emergency at the hospital because there simply wasn’t enough there to display they had more in common than blistering sex especially in this opposites-attract story.

‘Claiming the enemy’ is in fact a misnomer for a story that isn’t quite about two enemies, but two people who have issues about letting their own walls down. It isn’t a bad read, but it could have been stellar with a more balanced offering of smexy times and character depth.